There was a time when the sky was bright, a sparkling river fixed in the firmament, but you can’t see it anymore. The glistening towers of glass have driven the stars away. Those scrapheaps are where most of our kind dwell. I get it. The blood practically leaps into your mouth. Once upon a time, I may have traded in my spurs for slippers too. But for some of us, for me, cities are cages, concrete dens with an ever ready troth.
The open plains, the highways, they give predators like us proper freedom, but unlife on the road has never been easy, at least not as easy as it is for those who prefer their cages. If we’re lucky, Princes and Barons just look the other way when we ride through. Sometimes they like to make a sport of it, sending their Hound or Sweeper to lay down their law. I get it. Don’t mind, really. It helps keep us sharp. But times are changing.
The troth has made the city dwellers fat and slow. Unfortunately, they all but bared their necks for the Second Inquisition, and this has made them desperate. Princes and Barons have gotten more hardline, and some even sell us out to First Light. Some hunters are even bold enough to set up checkpoints to try and catch us. Not many places to hide from drones on an empty highway.
No one fights on so many fronts, so something’s gotta change. Can’t expect much from the ossified licks in the city. Feeding from the troth so long has dulled their senses, made their wits slow. That means we gotta work the situation, not so much as to make enemies, but enough so we can stretch our legs without added dangers.
Adventures in San Antonio
Although the city licks took the brunt of it, no one expected the Second Inquisition would be as rough on nomadic Kindred as it had been. Looking to change things in their favor, the Free Spirits sat down to negotiate free passage through San Antonio, so that when the hammer of First Light fell, they wouldn’t be caught between the hunters and obstinate Princes.
Three hurdles stood in the way of the nomads; three tasks set by the Prince of San Antonio to gain free passage. They had to bribe the Scourge, provide the city a way to bolster the Masquerade, and they had to bribe the Prince with something extra.
One of these tasks proved easier than the rest, but in the end, more was placed on the table than mere boons. The true price of freedom is learning that all Kindred must play the great game.
